“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Psalm 34:11-14 ESV
Reflection: How do you “make” peace?
The topic of peace is very interesting. On the one hand, most people want to have peace, to live in peace. Yet, on the other hand, peace seems so elusive. So difficult to achieve. We can look at any big conflict in the world, and there seems to be the communicated wish for peace, but then the fighting continues. For the past several months, there has been an effort to achieve a cease fire, and ultimately an end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. To stop the evil going on there, the bloodshed of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the region. But, despite a lot of talk and focus on achieving peace, it seems very difficult to achieve. As soon as it looks like progress is made towards peace, some new event happens that basically destroys all the peace efforts. So not only can you talk about peace, even have a desire for peace, there needs to be efforts from both sides to achieve peace.
Jesus talked about people who worked towards peace, ““Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9 ESV. To be a peacemaker, almost sounds like taking on a role, don’t you think? Do we think of working on peace this way, that it actually is work?
He said peacemakers are “blessed”. And we might be wondering what sort of blessing peacemakers receive. In psalm 34, David is alluding to this blessing. First of all, he says that being a peacemaker is associated with having “fear of the Lord”; Jesus called that being “sons of God”. Having characteristics of God. And then David says the blessing is “life” and “many days”. Perhaps we could translate that to be a good, long life. Now, David says that there are a few pre-conditions for achieving peace. He says to “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good;” In our world full of lies, deception, and so much evil all around us, we can understand why peace then is so elusive, so difficult to achieve.
During recent peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine decided to go forward with a massive surprise attack deep inside Russia. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that such actions will break down any progress made, and set the peace efforts way back. Very frustrating for those who truly are working on making peace. We are again reminded that there cannot be any peace where there is only evil, lies and deceit. Where there is no desire for peace.
And this is not just in big, international conflicts like the one between Ukraine and Russia. I believe peace starts with each of us; in our hearts. If we don’t have peace within us, that is, peace of God, it is very difficult to be a peacemaker and promote peace in our surroundings. To be a peacemaker at home, among friends, at work and in our communities. Now, something to think about today, is that being a peacemaker is not a command of the Lord. It is completely voluntary; we don’t “have to”. He simply says that we are blessed when we do. Plus, we reflect our Heavenly Father, reflect His character as His sons and daughters.
Let’s leave a trail of peace wherever we go.